Best High Schools in Zip Code 55101

ZIP code 55101 on Saint Paul's east side contains exactly one high school: Creative Arts Secondary School, a grade 6–12 secondary school at 65 Kellogg Blvd E with 382 students, part of Saint Paul Public Schools. Because it is the only school in the area, there is no local comparison to make — the useful comparison is between this school and its district and state, and between its own middle grades and high school grades.

The most important thing for parents to understand is that this school performs very differently by grade level. Its high school grades are its strength: 10th grade Reading is 51.9% proficient, above both the district (34.0) and the state (42.5), and 11th grade Math is 31.8% proficient, above the district (23.1). Its middle grades lag well behind — 6th grade Math is 3.7% and 8th grade Science is just 2.9% proficient, against 39.5% and 16.7% statewide. The overall "all grades" Math figure of 11.7% blends those two very different stories, so ask about specific grade-level results rather than the schoolwide average. Reading is the most consistently healthy subject; Science is the weakest and moved backward from 17.1% to 9.3% in a year while the district improved.

There are real signs of momentum. The school's statewide ranking rose from the 16th percentile (1 star) to the 56th percentile (3 stars) over two ranking cycles, well above its own district's 24th percentile standing, and its dropout rate of 3.2% is better than both the district (5.6%) and state (4.2%). Its graduation rate of 70.9%, however, trails the district (77.8%) and state (84.9%), so dropout and graduation should not be read as telling the same story. With 75.39% of students qualifying for free or reduced lunch and a student–teacher ratio of 18.3, this is a high-need school posting below-average aggregate scores but improving fast, with upper-grade results that beat the district.